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Mental Disorders In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Adolescent Mental Disorders
Mental disorders are health conditions that affect the mood, thinking, and behavior of the person who has one. According to teenmentalhealth.org, 1 in 5 young people suffer from a mental illness. Shakespeare’s Hamlet, has been classified as a “problem play” because it addresses social and personal issues, one of those issues being mental disorders. In act 1, scene 2, Hamlet says “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew, or that the everlasting had not fix 'd his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!” (Shakespeare 1.2 133-238), which tells us that he is depressed about his dad, Old Hamlet, dying and he wishes he could just die too. …show more content…

According to webmd.com, there is no one reason or cause of a mental disorder but it is a mix of environmental, biological, and psychological reasons. An environmental factor can be something like if an adolescent is having problems going on in their family at home, it could be expectations of society, or even something like moving to a new home and going to a new school where they have to adjust to a new lifestyle. A biological factor could be that a mental disorder runs in the family, or something like being born with a brain defect. Examples of psychological factors of mental disorders could be things like a loss in the adolescent 's family, feelings of negligence in their life, or it could be something as simple as feeling like they’re not relating to others around them. These are just a few starting points that might lead to a mental disorder in the future of that

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Hamlet discusses his first suicidal thought, which shows Hamlets degree of depression. In this soliloquy, Hamlet is complaining that he cannot commit suicide and he wishes that his physical state (body) would melt away. During this scene in the play, Hamlet is still grieving his father’s death and controlling his rage towards Gertrude’s incestuous marriage to Claudius, Hamlet wishes to die himself and is having thoughts about suicide due to his melancholy state. Depression is the first symptom of dissociative identity disorder that causes or alters an individual’s personality. Audiences can observe that Hamlet is traumatized from his father’s death, which is causing his mental state to worsen.

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In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many references to sanity and insanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet goes back and forth between sanity and insanity, whether pretending to be insane just to mess with those he does not like or to save himself from getting in trouble. Hamlet is actually one of the smartest characters in the play, which is why he can pull off acting crazy so well. Shakespeare uses this idea of sanity and insanity to help the plot change and take a different directions. One of the most discussed topics of the Hamlet is whether Hamlet is insane or if he was just pretending the whole time.

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1598 Words | 7 Pages

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1514 Words | 7 Pages

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1153 Words | 5 Pages

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873 Words | 4 Pages

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1673 Words | 7 Pages

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